EARLIER: Last time Kiefer Sutherland was hanging around New York, he was here saving the world as Jack Bauer in the final season of the Fox series 24. Sutherland is coming back to town, this time to star in a revival of the Jason Miller play That Championship Season. He’ll star alongside Brian Cox, with Gregory Mosher directing. Rehearsals start in January for a February 10, 2011 opening. The play is about four guys who come for a reunion with their high school hoops coach 20 years after they won the state championship. The players have all stayed in touch the coach (Cox) but never really achieved their career goals in life. The reunion might be their last, and secrets spill. Sutherland will play the role of James Daley, a local junior high school principal. The original play debuted in 1972 and won both the Tony Award and Pulitizer Prize the following year.

All this goes on while 20th Century Fox continues to work out the beats of the 24 movie. It’s unclear when that picture will go into production with Sutherland reprising. There is a script draft by Billy Ray, and the most recent word I’d heard had Tony Scott discussing the film with the studio. Scott has made no commitment to the project, though he would be an inspired choice given his penchant for creating cinematic tension in films like Man on Fire and the upcoming Unstoppable. At its series best, 24 moved at a similar breakneck pace.